Disappearance of Beverly Potts

The family resided in a modest home in a middle-class neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, which her father had purchased in 1927.

Her father worked long and irregular hours as a stagehand at the Allen Theater in downtown Cleveland, whereas her mother was a homemaker.

Her older sister, 22-year-old Anita, worked as a clerk at the National Cash Register Company.

Potts' father was of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, whereas her mother was of Hungarian ancestry.

Potts was a quiet, responsible, obedient child who was close to her parents and only sister and who enjoyed music and dancing.

She was tall for her age, and affectionately nicknamed "Rosebud" by her mother.

Beverly Rose Potts (April 15, 1941 – disappeared August 24, 1951) was a ten-year-old American girl who disappeared while walking home from a neighborhood festival event held in a park less than a quarter of a mile from her Cleveland, Ohio home.

Despite intense publicity and repeated, exhaustive efforts to locate the girl, both at the time of her disappearance and in more recent decades, no trace of Potts or definitive leads as to the circumstances surrounding her disappearance have ever materialized.

Foul play is strongly suspected, although no definitive suspect has ever been identified.

The disappearance of Beverly Potts implemented the largest manhunt to locate a missing person in the history of Cleveland at the time.

The case itself is regarded as one of the most infamous missing persons and cold cases in Ohio and has been described by one author as "one of the most haunting and heartbreaking mysteries" in the history of Cleveland.

Beverly Potts was the younger of two daughters born to Robert and Elizabeth ( Treuer) Potts.

The 11.5 acre park had opened to the public in 1945, and was a popular recreational location for local children, young couples and families.

Attending the park unsupervised in the late afternoon was a rare instance for neighborhood children, as locals generally considered the park unsafe for children after dark, when large trees dimmed the surrounding streetlights and visibility was thus limited.

The park was also frequented by the local vagrant population.

According to Swing, beyond exchanging brief greetings with two thirteen-year-old girls whom both knew at Halloran Park, neither conversed with any individual during their time together at this location, although the sheer size of the crowd made navigating upon their bicycles awkward for both.

At 8:10 p.m., deciding it would be easier to maneuver on foot through the increasingly large crowds in attendance, the two returned to their homes to drop off their bikes, arriving back at the park sometime before 8:30 p.m.

At approximately 8:45 p.m., Swing, who had promised her parents to be home before dark, turned toward her friend and suggested the two return home "before dark"; Potts—enthralled by the performances—refused, saying that she had been given permission to stay for the entirety of the show, which was not scheduled to end until after 9 p.m. Swing left the park and returned to her home, arriving at approximately 8:50 p.m. She later informed investigators she had last seen Potts in the crowd, avidly watching an onstage dancing performance.

By 9:30 p.m., the performance event had ended and the estimated 1,500 people at the park had begun returning home.

According to some accounts, by 1951 she appeared one or two years older than her ten years, although she still enjoyed playing with childhood toys such as dolls.

She attended Louis Agassiz Elementary School, where she was regarded as an attentive and popular student who typically achieved B grades.

Although Potts was generally shy but friendly, her best friend, 11-year-old Patricia "Patsy" Swing, would remark the child was loath to be the recipient of prolonged or cruel jokes and could lose her temper on occasion.

Nonetheless, she was described by many who knew her as markedly timid and taciturn when in the company of individuals she did not know—particularly adolescent or adult males outside of her immediate family.

This wariness extended to male family members of her close friends, including Swing's own father.

Shortly after her tenth birthday in April 1951, Potts began asking her mother to allow her to change her hairstyle from the distinctive foot-long blonde pigtails she had typically worn since her childhood to a fashionable banged and bobbed hairstyle popular with girls at the time.

Although her mother initially refused, she relented in June 1951 and allowed her daughter to have her hair cut short.

Elizabeth retained her daughter's pigtails and ribbons in crepe paper.

Throughout her entire childhood, Potts' parents insisted she always observe a strict curfew, and they would ground her if she did not return home by the agreed time.

On one day in mid-August 1951, Potts and a cousin, Amber Lathan, arrived home slightly later than agreed.

In response, Potts' mother forbade her daughter from attending an upcoming annual performing show to be held at nearby Halloran Park on August 24.

However, as one of her daughter's greatest interests was the performing arts and Potts had been thrilled at the prospect of viewing the performance, her mother agreed to let her attend this performance event on the afternoon in question in return for a promise she would immediately return home.

On the afternoon of August 24, Potts ate supper with her family, then assisted her mother with cleaning the dishes, for which the child was paid a nickel.

By agreement, she and her best friend and neighbor, Patricia Swing then rode to West Cleveland's Halloran Park to attend the annual summer city-sponsored children's performance event, scheduled to commence at eight o'clock.

This location was less than a quarter of a mile from the Potts' Linnet Avenue household and an estimated three-minute walk from her home.

The two rode to the park together on their bicycles, leaving the Potts household at around 6:55 p.m. Potts was dressed in a reddish-pink turtleneck shirt, blue denim jeans, a navy blue jacket, and brown Kerrybrooke shoes.

The performance in question at Halloran Park on that date was the Showagon; an annual jamboree-like event jointly sponsored by the City Recreation Department and the Cleveland Press predominantly showcasing the talents of local youngsters with acts including singers, dancing troupes, amateur magicians, and acrobatics who performed upon a long flatbed truck converted into a stage.

Potts and Swing are believed to have arrived at the park at approximately 6:58 p.m.

Halloran Park was the only large playground close to Potts' home.

At this time, a 13-year-old boy named Fred Krause saw a girl he believed to be Potts walking diagonally across the park in a northeasterly direction, about 150 yards from the corner of Linnet Avenue and West 117th Street.

(This would have been the quickest route for Potts' to take to her home, which would then only be two or three minutes' walk away from the park.) The girl was walking on the grass just to the right of the walkway as Krause cycled past on his bicycle.